How Can Liverpool Fix Their Current Squad Issues

At the end of the storm, there's a golden sky, or so the famous saying goes at Anfield. But lately, it’s been more than tempting to suggest that an opposite reality is slowly unfolding.

And as Liverpool supporters cheered and applauded Mohamed Salah and Andrew Robertson, two defining symbols of the club's recent success, off for the final time, there was a cloud of uncertainty has befallen the club.

An embattled Arne Slot may very well be relieved to see the back end of a season that began in tragedy and finished in turmoil, with little respite in between. Everything from failing to integrate new signings cohesively, to laboured performances and the chaotic exit of Mo Salah has meant that he is fighting against the odds from the moment the new season begins.

One thing for certain is that Liverpool need a return to the heavy-metal intensity that defined them under Jurgen Klopp, or something approaching it at least. In a city with a football club shaped by principles of collectivism, solidarity, sacrifice and hard work, this would go some way to fixing the disassociation between the supporters and the current team.

READ MORE: Life After Liverpool: Three Clubs That Could Sign Mohamed Salah

So, how do Liverpool get there? Is it purely down to tactics, or do transfers also matter?

Yan Diomande has already been bookmarked as a replacement for Mo Salah. Liverpool have been starved of pace on the wings, and this has had an impact on the physicality of the team, in being able to get up the pitch, or quickly in behind opponents.

Diomande would arrive as a promising 19-year-old, having scored 12 goals for Leipzig in the Bundesliga this season, where he was calculated to be one of the fastest wingers, having hit a top speed of 36.6kmh.

There’s also been speculation that Bradley Barcola could arrive, but this remains to be seen as Liverpool are hesitant to block the pathway of their own, Rio Ngumoha, one of the few bright lights of a dim season.

Yet the forward is merely one aspect and Liverpool’s problems are interconnected.

The midfield was once the centrepiece of Liverpool’s heavy-metal intensity under Klopp. The trio of Jordan Henderson, Gini Wijnaldum and Fabinho expertly marshalled the team, offered protection to the defence and allowed the full-backs to launch ruthless and relentless waves of pressures from the flanks.

READ MORE: Three Right-Backs Liverpool Could Target This Summer

This is a very different Liverpool midfield, defined by pretty patterns of passing in the middle of the pitch that suggests some semblance of control and dominance, yet one that falters immediately under pressure. The compact structure has disappeared, and teams overrun Liverpool on the counterattack, with massive swathes of green grass separating the defence from the rest of the team.

Some of this is tactical, such as Slot’s persistence with sitting Ryan Gravenberch in defence during the transition, vacating the midfield. Yet some of it owes to the physical toll on the players. Alexis McAllister seems physically shattered by the league campaign, unable to close distances, incapable of escaping a press.

Liverpool magically unearthed stardust for one season by using Gravenberch as a ball-playing holding midfielder, winning the league with it, but this has run its course. Liverpool needs to finally replace Fabinho.

But beyond that, Liverpool needs an identity to cohere around. The heavy press may be beyond this current squad, but Liverpool are badly missing intensity and aggression in their football.

There is a symbiotic relationship between Anfield and the players that has been fractured by the slow, dull football. This needs to be fixed. It cannot be a coincidence that Liverpool have suffered at Anfield so much playing like this.

Arne Slot, bizarre as it sounds for a man who won the league title just the season before, is already on borrowed time.

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